Garden Excavation Part 1

While Mark was sweeping the lower deck last week he noticed a tiered garden area on the south side of Chigger Chalet. We hadn't noticed it before because the area was so overgrown with vines and weeds. This was an exciting revelation for us because living on a cliff doesn't leave much room for planting a garden. On Saturday we started clearing out the space. It's gonna be a helluva job!


I had been working on trimming out the vines for about thirty minutes when I realized I might want to take a Before picture.

Home to our future flower or herb garden.

That tangled mess was full of thorn vines! They made for slow progress. Remember the giant tree stump I mentioned in a previous post? It stands right behind this jungle area. 

Giant tree stump.

You can see from the tree stump photo just how high these vines and trees reach into the sky! It took several hours just to make a dent. 

Slowly but surely.

To the left of the future garden are stairs...if we can dig them out! They will give us easy access to the top tier of the garden from the lower deck.

Look hard and you can make out the stairs.

After a few more hours of cutting, yanking, and raking away the leaves I could see the retaining wall for the second tier.

Starting to reveal the stone retaining wall.

At this point I called Mark over from the project he was working on at the other end of the house and had him start removing the small trees that were growing in there. While he worked on uprooting the little trees I started excavating what seemed like a million rocks (and I'm nowhere near finished).

The rocks we moved from the garden.

We found flat stones, round stones, stones with holes in them that looked like small skulls and a few unexpected goodies! 

Shells I found during the dig.

Quartz Crystals also found during the dig.

I was over the moon about the crystals! It is the first time I have ever excavated my own from the earth.

Fibonacci Shell.

After Mark removed the small trees we could really get an idea of what the space has to offer.

Making progress!

The bottom tier has about four feet in depth and eight feet in length for planting. This coming weekend we want to start on the top tier if we don't get too much rain. At this point we had been working for about five hours and decided to call it a day. The photo below is what the space looks like now. 

The stopping point.

I'll keep you guys posted with our progress as we continue project Garden Excavation. Have a beautiful day!

~ Love & Light ~

The Other Side Of The Dam

Finley River Bridge and Dam.

Penny and I decided to go exploring the other day. Not surprisingly, we ended up down by the old Ozark Mill. Penny was hot on the scent-trail of a gopher ( I decided this because of all of the giant gopher holes everywhere) and I followed along patiently, letting her exercise her natural instinct. When we reached an area of the mill yard that had a "No Trespassing" sign I decided to be mischievous. We ducked under the rope with the attached sign and found ourselves on the forbidden backside of the mill.

Entering the "No Trespassing" area.

Once behind the mill, I was able to see the dam from a view you just can't get unless you are willing to break the rules. It really is a pretty sight. The sound of the rushing water is exhilarating. I tried to capture it in the following video. 

I took a few shots of the area, I would have liked to take more but Penny was having too much fun running around for me to spend a lot of time playing photographer. Click on the images to enlarge them.

Old stones in the water.

A different view of the dam.

I was surprised to see shells all along the river bank and collected a pocket full. I found shells from small mussels, snails, and even a smoothed piece of sea colored glass. After collecting the shells and letting Penny investigate the area a little longer, I decided we'd better move on before local law enforcement stopped by to move us out. On the way home I tried to get a photo of me with the hound but she just cannot sit still.

First try.

Second try.

Shells I collected on the riverbank. 

That wraps up our little adventure. I hope you're out exploring your neck of the woods, wherever you may be! 

~ Love & Light ~

Accidental Art: Exploration #27

Wow! I haven't done an exploration from the book, How To Be An Explorer Of The World: Portable Art Life Museum by Keri Smith, since February! Let's get back to it, shall we?


Exploration #27


ACCIDENTAL ART


Go for a walk. Identify and document existing "art" that you find, such as things that are not created on purpose. Some examples include stains on the sidewalk, spilled paint, bird poo, residue, corrosion, rust, things that are damaged, random arrangements of objects that you find interesting, a bag caught in a tree.


I kept thinking I would set aside some time to go on a walk specifically for this assignment and collect photos. What ended up happening is that over the course of the last month I randomly came across accidental art and stashed the photos in my phone until I had collected enough to feel like the project had been completed. So this project came about very organically...almost accidentally.


Heading to the car one morning during a rain shower, I noticed that dozens of worms were seeking refuge under the carport. I saw an abstract of their trails on the concrete and thought of this exploration. I think it is totally museum worthy.

Worm trails on concrete.

This next piece makes me think of the small fur balls that would pop off of the mogwai and produce gremlins from the classic 80's movie Gremlins. I wasn't that far off either. That little fur ball on the oak leaf is a leaf gall caused by tiny wasps! (miniature gremlins?) Luckily the oak apple gall wasp doesn't sting and is harmless to humans. The galls look neat though.

Leaf gall.

Close up of the gall.

My final piece might be the gnarliest. On the south end of Chigger Chalet is a large tree stump. Stump doesn't really seem like the right word though. It looks like someone took a chainsaw to it just beneath where the branches would have begun...so it is a very tall stump. It is tangled in a mess of vines I haven't identified yet and a has a piece of wood nailed to it that may have been part of a bird house at some time. I used to think the whole thing to be a huge eyesore, but I have become fond of it and to me it is art. Mark wants to clear the area and get rid of it to better use the space, so I am memorializing it here on the blog.

Gnarly tree stump.

Closer view of wood on stump.

That wraps up exploration #27! I'll leave you with an photo of the sun's reflection in the river taken on an overcast day last week. The branches seem to be straining to form a star around the sun glow. 

Sun's reflection in the Finley River.

Look with all your eyes, look. -Jules Verne

~ Love & Light ~

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

The trees are budding!

Seeing green.

What a gorgeous day here in Oz! The trees are budding, the sun is shining, and the Earth's green carpet is returning. Right now it's 73º outside. A perfect day for sunbathing and relaxing on the deck. I think Penny has had her fill of sunshine this morning...she found a shady spot to rest in.

Happy Hound in the shade.

The wind is blowing just enough to keep the river moving at a good pace and the sunlight playing on the waves is enchanting. 

The Mighty Finley.

I brought most of the houseplants out to the deck so they could get better light and fresh air. My cacti plants have at  least doubled in size since I brought them home last summer. People call this variety the "hairy old man" cactus. The more direct sunshine they get, the longer their fuzzy white hair grows. 

The hairy old men.

I also have somehow managed to keep the terrarium my friend, Rcena, gave to me from dying. I am notorious for killing succulents but somehow these little ones are hanging on. 

Top view of the terrarium.

The daffodils have bloomed too. We have a few in the front yard that a previous tenant must have planted, but what really delights me are the daffodils that have popped up on the cliff on the back side of the house. You can't get to the cliff except from the river and even then, I'm not sure how you would climb up it to plant bulbs? I suppose you could get down there from the lower deck, but that seems risky. I like to believe they are wild. 

Daffodils on the cliff.

Daffodils near the stairs leading to the dock.

I love watching the geese play in the water and feeling the sun on my skin.

I also want to include a photo from last week in this post in case you didn't catch it on my Facebook page. A beautiful double rainbow over the water at sunset. It cast the most brilliant golden hue in the sky.

Double rainbow at sunset.

April's Charms
by William Henry Davies

When April scatters charms of primrose gold
Among the copper leaves in thickets old,
And singing skylarks from the meadows rise,
To twinkle like black stars in sunny skies;

When I can hear the small woodpecker ring
Time on a tree for all the birds that sing;
And hear the pleasant cuckoo, loud and long --
The simple bird that thinks two notes a song;

When I can hear the woodland brook, that could
Not drown a babe, with all his threatening mood;
Upon these banks the violets make their home,
And let a few small strawberry vlossoms come:

When I go forth on such a pleasant day,
One breath outdoors takes all my cares away;
It goes like heavy smoke, when flames take hold
Of wood that's green and fill a grate with gold. 

~ Love & Light ~

Yes...I'm Blogging About Yoghurt

I'm here today to tell you guys that I have found the holy grail of yoghurts. I do not exaggerate, I tell no lies. This yoghurt is manna from heaven! Let me tell you about Noosa.

The label says Finest Yoghurt, and they aren't kidding! This yoghurt is named for an area in Australia's Sunshine Coast...Noosa. It is also the place the recipe was created. The founders ended up falling in love with Colorado after a visit and now they reside there. Lucky for us! 

Just look how delicious the blueberry flavor looks!

I bought mine at the Price Cutter here in Oz. They had blueberry, strawberry-rhubarb, honey, and raspberry flavors. I can't wait to try them all. It wasn't very expensive either. The container is larger than the average single serving yoghurt too. Best of all? The cows who make the milk are raised on a family farm and rBGH free! 

In Springfield you can find Noosa at the Bistro Market downtown, Price Cutter locations, Target, Hy-Vee, and Harter House. At my market they are in the Natural Foods section, so don't forget to look there if your market has one. I hope you get to try it soon and love it as much as I do! That's all for today...time to go catch some rays!

~ Love & Light ~

The Earthbreakers

I am currently reading a book called The Earthbreakers by Ernest Haycox. This book was part of my Grandma Jernigan's collection. It was published in 1952 and the jacket is missing from my copy so I went into it having no idea what to expect. I'm only a few chapters in so far and it turns out I'm reading a historical novel. This is really out of the box for me but I am enjoying it so far. Here is a review from Amazon by a person called Charles Wheeler...


"A great historical novel, not a Western. With this novel Ernest Haycox became a legend in the publishing business. That is not to say he was not already considered one of the best writers in the world. But here he puts together everything he had hoped to accomplish as a writer--in-depth characters, great accomplishments by these characters, conflict, co-operation, set amidst the back drop of a country wild and free. If the opening pages of this book don't grab hold of you and make you want to read the rest, then I don't know what would. Rice Burnett is one of the most complicated personages you will ever want to meet, and George Collingwood an apt counterpart. There are two women to add in the mix as well, Edna, and Katherine--which will Rice choose? This is a sprawling epic, some of which is predictable, and some not as Ernest Haycox has a way of putting ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, and extricates them as only he can do. This is one book not to miss, if you love historical novels filled with lots of characters."

#Historical #Frontier life #Romance

~ Love & Light ~